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Bitfinex Turkiye Facilitates Zero-Cost Deposits via VakıfBank Partnership

Web3 & Enterprise·August 25, 2023, 2:06 AM

In a strategic move to bolster its presence in Turkey, cryptocurrency trading platform Bitfinex has introduced a seamless and cost-free method for Turkish customers to deposit Turkish lira directly into their accounts.

According to a press release published by the company on Thursday, this integration comes as a result of collaboration between Bitfinex Turkiye and VakıfBank, Turkey’s second largest bank in terms of asset size, and a significant player in the Turkish banking sector.

Photo by Meg Jerrard on Unsplash

 

Expanding market access

Bitfinex’s Chief Technology Officer, Paolo Ardoino, emphasized the user-centric benefits of this partnership. He stated that Turkish customers can now deposit lira effortlessly and economically, streamlining their access to the cryptocurrency market.

This development could potentially aid Bitfinex in expanding its operations within Turkey, which stands as one of the largest markets for leading global crypto exchange Binance. Ardoino stated that the move facilitates “the ability to deposit [lira] seamlessly and cost-effectively.” Additionally, Ardoino maintained that market access was being enabled “by integrating with VakıfBank,” and that “[Bitfinex] is making it easier” for customers to participate.

 

Collaborating with the crypto sector

Founded in the 1950s, VakıfBank has 935 brick-and-mortar branches, a network of over 4,000 ATMs and almost one million point-of-sale (POS) terminals in use. This latest partnership is not the first touch point for the bank when it comes to the crypto sector. It has a similar deal in place with Istanbul-based crypto platform, CoinTR. In that instance, CoinTR customers can deposit or withdraw Turkish lira to or from their CoinTR accounts via VakifBank instantly, 24/7 and with zero fees.

The bank has also participated in a blockchain-based trade finance initiative, the Turkish Trade Chain Project. In a press release published by the bank last year, it expressed the belief “that blockchain technology will make data sharing more transparent, traceable, verifiable and controllable by reducing the communication traffic between parties in the foreign trade process that requires many documents.”

 

Partnering with TradFi

By aligning its services with a traditional financial institution, Bitfinex joins the ranks of other industry players like Fidelity, BlackRock, and PayPal, which have demonstrated increasing openness to cryptocurrencies despite the ongoing bear market.

Turkey has proven to be an important market for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and USDT, the US dollar stablecoin issued by Bitfinex’s sister company, Tether. Runaway inflation in recent years has led to an outsized interest in decentralized money in the country.

Bitfinex’s business in Turkey has not been without its hiccups. Earlier this year, a Wall Street Journal report alleged that Bitfinex Turkiye user accounts had been implicated in terrorist financing. One particular account was alleged to have been used for money laundering purposes by the armed wing of Palestinian militant group, Hamas.

This latest initiative follows Bitfinex’s recent announcement of the launch of Bitfinex P2P, a peer-to-peer exchange catering to clients in Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia. With such expansions and collaborations, the cryptocurrency sector continues to evolve, demonstrating resilience and adaptability in the face of bear market conditions and regulatory challenges.

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Web3 & Enterprise·

May 08, 2023

Titi Financial Announces $TITI Airdrop

Titi Financial Announces $TITI AirdropTiti Financial, the team behind Titi Protocol, a project that aims to further its $TiUSD algorithmic stablecoin, announced that it is currently distributing the first round of airdrops of its $TITI governance token.Taking to social media, the Singapore-based project encouraged interested parties to check their eligibility for the airdrop on the project’s website. In a Medium blog post, the project stated: “In order to give back to the users who have supported us all the way, TiTi protocol has decided to conduct the first round of airdrops to community users.”An algorithmic stablecoinTiTi Protocol is a decentralized, 100% collateral-backed, ‘use-to-earn’ algorithmic stablecoin. It aims to provide diversified and decentralized financial services based on the crypto-native stablecoin system, with an autonomous monetary policy.Alongside $TITI as the project’s governance token, $TiUSD is the accompanying stablecoin issued by TiTi Protocol.Initial DEX offering (IDO)The airdrop runs until May 9. Once that process has been completed, the project intends to launch on mainnet through an initial DEX offering (IDO). IDO volume will be 10 million $TITI, 1% of total issuance, with an initial price per token of $0.06.Launching on the Ethereum blockchain, the IDO commences on May 10, with the sale running until 8:00 UTC on May 13. Buyers have until 08:00 UTC on May 14 to claim their tokens. Total token supply has been set at 1,000,000,000 $TITI. Purchase amount parameters have been set, with a minimum to maximum range extending from $100 to $3,000. The $TITI token can be purchased using USDC, USDT or DAI stablecoin. The project has advised participants to prepare by having an Ethereum compatible wallet available, such as MetaMask, Gnosis Safe or WalletConnect.$3.5 million fund raiseLast month, the project disclosed that it had been successful in raising $3.5 million in funding. The funding round was led by California-based Spartan Group, a blockchain advisory and asset management firm. Other venture investors included SevenX Ventures, Incuba Alpha, DeFi Alliance, Agnostic Fund, Fourth Revolution Capital and Solidity Venture. A number of individual investors associated with Alpha Venture DAO and 0x1b from Fold Finance also participated.Overcoming algorithmic design shortcomingsIt’s interesting to see a renewed interest in algorithmic stablecoins after the epic collapse of Terra Luna in 2022. Additionally, it’s noteworthy that an institutional investment appetite exists given that backdrop. Lead investor Spartan Group cited the depegging risk alongside poor liquidity as being a known problem where algorithmic stablecoins are concerned. However, the investor believes that the Titi Protocol has the necessary design elements incorporated to counteract these issues.One of the key features of the protocol is that liquidity providers only need to provide single sided liquidity to Titi automated market makers (AMMs). The protocol itself covers the other side of that process, doing the math to mint the equivalent value of TiUSD.In April, the project also announced a partnership with Alpha Venture DAO. The decentralized venture capital fund is financed by its own community. Furthermore, Titi Finance can call on the expertise and skills of the DAOs members.Photo by CoinWire Japan on Unsplash

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Web3 & Enterprise·

Sep 06, 2023

Blockchain Experts Gather at KBW 2023 Side Event to Discuss Future Prospects of South Korea

Blockchain Experts Gather at KBW 2023 Side Event to Discuss Future Prospects of South KoreaBlockchain experts from various corners of the industry converged to exchange insights on industrial and technological trends during “Unveiling Prospects in South Korea,” a side event affiliated with Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) 2023. This noteworthy gathering, co-hosted by Sui, Google Cloud, CoinNess, and Bitmain, took place on September 5 at Banyan Tree Club and Spa Seoul.Blockchain compatibility and Web3 adoptionAmong the distinguished speakers at the event, Derik Han, Head of APAC Partnerships at Mysten Labs, the team behind the layer-1 blockchain project SUI, discussed how the SUI project plans to enhance blockchain compatibility through a zero-knowledge (ZK) login feature, similar to single sign-on (SSO). SSO enables users to use a single set of login credentials to gain access to various applications.Han underscored the significance of reducing technical barriers for the widespread adoption of Web3 in our daily lives, and he pointed out that SUI’s ZK login feature would contribute to this goal. Additionally, Han shed light on SUI’s intention to add on-chain features highly favored among Korean gamers.Security tokens and RWAsJo Dong-hyeon, the CEO of Undefined Labs, a developer specializing in on-chain risk rating solutions, emphasized that the Korean decentralized finance (DeFi) market is poised for growth, driven by security tokens and real-world assets (RWAs). He highlighted the significant attention received by the Financial Services Commission’s announcement regarding guidelines for security token offerings (STOs) in February.Jo observed that tokens backed by real-world assets (RWAs) would serve as a bridge between the DeFi space and traditional financial markets, facilitating the development of the former. He also noted that this development would follow the pattern seen in the Korean cryptocurrency market whose liquidity has been supported by young investors.NFT ecosystemsMeanwhile, Kim Min-gu, Head of Web3 Business Development Lab at LG Uplus, a telecom company, expressed their commitment to expanding the Moono NFT ecosystem. This venture, anchored around their octopus character, intends to advance through collaborations with similar NFT projects like Lotte Homeshopping’s pink bear character, Bellygom. Kim highlighted that the company’s primary goal for this year is to make NFTs accessible even to customers who are unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies.Kim further explained that LG Uplus aims to delve into the differences between Web3 NFT communities and their Web2 counterparts. The company’s focus lies in improving the overall usability of its services, without narrowing down its target audience. They are particularly intrigued by the potential of wallets and decentralized applications (dApps) in this pursuit.Banks’ entry into the virtual asset landscapeFollowing this, Leem Min-ho, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities, predicted a strategic expansion by Korean banks, with an emphasis on offering digital asset custody services. This endeavor has been catalyzed by recent developments, including the introduction of security token guidelines in February and the passage of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act in June. These regulatory milestones are gradually shaping a more defined legal framework for virtual assets within South Korea. Leem went on to say that banks, known to favor engaging in business activities within established regulatory boundaries, are poised to concentrate their forthcoming initiatives on approved security tokens, ensuring compliance and adherence to regulatory standards.

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Web3 & Enterprise·

Jul 13, 2023

Suspected Malicious Activity Drains AnySwap Tokens via Multichain Executor

Suspected Malicious Activity Drains AnySwap Tokens via Multichain ExecutorAccording to an on-chain sleuth known as Spreek, a person is using the Multichain Executor to drain tokens associated with the AnySwap bridging protocol.Multichain is a cross-chain routing network, established and maintained by a Chinese developer team. It supports in excess of 25 blockchains and more than 1,100 tokens.Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash$100 million outflowThis revelation comes after abnormal outflows of over $100 million from Multichain bridges on July 7, which were flagged by the Multichain team. Spreek’s report via Twitter on July 10 states that the Multichain Executor address has been draining anyToken addresses across multiple chains and transferring them to a new externally owned account (EOA).Evidence provided in the report includes an Ethereum transaction, 0x53ede4462d90978b992b0a88727de19afe4e96f0374aa1a221b8ff65fda5a6fe, which called the “anySwapFeeTo” method on the Multichain Router: V4 contract. This transaction resulted in approximately $15,275.90 worth of anyDAI being minted on Ethereum, sent to the Multichain Executor, burned, and exchanged for the underlying DAI backing the asset.The funds from these transactions were sent to the following address:0x1eed63efba5f81d95bfe37d82c8e736b974f477b. Similarly, on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC), the Multichain Executor used the anySwapFeeTo function to convert $208,997 worth of anyUSDC into Binance-pegged USDC and sent them to the same address. Additionally, 50.80 anyBTC, equivalent to $39,251.43 at the time, was converted into Binance-pegged Bitcoin and sent to the address.In total, approximately $263,524.33 worth of tokens were sent to this address through the anySwapFeeTo method. Spreek suggests that this behavior could be part of the protocol’s normal functioning. However, a different account engaged in similar activity the day before and ultimately sold the drained tokens, indicating malicious intent.Potential exploitSpreek theorizes that the attacker may be exploiting the anySwapFeeTo function by setting fees to an arbitrarily large amount, allowing them to drain users’ funds. The function apparently permits setting any value, enabling the address to choose the total value of the token held in that anyToken.The Multichain incident has puzzled blockchain analysts, as it remains unclear whether it resulted from an exploit or if it was simply large token-holders moving their funds between networks. The mystery began on July 7 when over $100 million worth of tokens were withdrawn from the Ethereum side of Multichain’s bridges and transferred to wallet addresses with no prior transactions. This represented the majority of funds held on each bridge.Hack or rug pullThe Multichain team labeled these withdrawals as “abnormal” and advised users to stop using the protocol. However, they have not disclosed the source or nature of the anomaly. In response to the incident, stablecoin issuers Circle and Tether froze some of the addresses involved in the suspicious transactions. Chainanalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, has commented that the incident appears more like a hack or rug pull rather than a migration.Adding to the complexity, the Multichain team has reported that their CEO is missing, and they have shut down certain bridges due to losing access to some of the network’s multi-party computation network servers. There have been various concerns relative to Multichain since May. The situation continues to evolve, with ongoing investigations and efforts to mitigate any potential damage caused by the suspected malicious activity.

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